There's a long-running cartoon strip in our daily newspapers which targeted Paris Hilton last week. Large convict says "How'd you get a name like Paris anyway?", and Paris gives her conception explanation. Insignificant convict says "Wow! Same with me!" and Paris asks "So, what's your name?" The wonderful answer is "Holiday Inn" - I hope it's a joke!

Afrikaans-speaking people, or a few of them, used to go over the top with strange names: Doringdraadina (Barbed-wire-ina) to commemorate the concentration camps in the Anglo-Boer War; and Eeufesia, which looks like bad Greek but is actually "the little centenary celebration girl" (eeu = century, fees = festival) - revealing her age for ever, as the centenary was in 1938. I never met one, but my friend did; her nickname was Fissie, which sounds like and would be assumed to be Fishy.